All About Aldo Leopold

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I use Earth Alive? Earth Alive is designed to encourage a closer observation and analysis of our natural world. Follow techniques used for generations, you can track the annual comings and goings of natural phenomena and compare your observations with others in your community, in other parts of the State, and over time. Earth Alive will link you to fellow nature observers throughout the region and over time.

What if I didn’t see my Nature Observation on the first day it occurred? That's OK – the whole point is to encourage the observation and seeking out of things happening in our environment. The truth is that it may be the 'first' for you, even though others may have observed it sooner in their own backyards or communities. Chances are that whatever date that you noticed something will be very close to when others noticed it, too. Enter your observation into the database and compare!

What if I forgot to write down the temperature and weather data when we first observed our Nature Observation event? No problem. Sometimes the excitement of noticing something new in nature overshadows the background temperature and how the sky looked. But that information is important to phenology and the database, so we've included a simple link on the Observation Event Entry Page that will allow you to look up previous days' weather information.

What if I’m not really sure what we're observing? Enter your observation choice on the Observation Page and then click on the graphic image of that choice. This click will lead you to more detailed information about what you see – usually a picture, sound, or more detailed description.

What if we saw something really interesting, but there was no Nature Observation link for it? There’s always neat things happening in nature. Send your observation information to and we’ll see what we can do!

How do I look at my or other peoples' Nature Observation information? Finding and sorting your Nature Observation information is easy. Simply click on See Data and choose the way you’d like to see the information. You can rearrange the order on your data retrievals by clicking on the top of each column.

Can I find out what people in other parts of the City and/or State are seeing? You’ll be surprised at the difference in timing of seasonal changes throughout the State. We have data for some common observations in other parts of the State. Simply choose the Nature Observation Event and click on the GO button to see these observations show up over the calendar year. This information will be updated throughout the year.

I was looking on the maps for comparisons with others in other parts of the city or state, and there was no information. Records have been kept for years in Wisconsin, but very little of it is on computers yet. Earth Alive is a first step in making this information available to the public. We are still in the process of finding and entering data from all over the State. If you have records from past years, please enter them. Please check back or send us a note and we’ll see if we can locate data for comparison.

Who is Aldo Leopold and why would I want to compare my data with his? Aldo Leopold (1877-1948) was a world-famous scientist and author who lived in the Madison area and taught at the University of Wisconsin. During his adult years, he kept records about nature changes in the local environment. His daughter continued that work from the early 1970's to today. By comparing your observations with Aldo Leopold's, you can see if modern day factors are changing the arrival of seasonal changes. Think about it: Is there a difference? What do you think might have caused this change? How would we find out? Let us know your thoughts!